BIRD SANCTUARY

otis farm bird sanctuary

Bird lovers will want to plan an excursion to the Otis Farm Bird Sanctuary. According to their literature “Otis Sanctuary is adjacent to the Globally Important Bird Area, Barry State Game Area, which recognizes critical habitat for Cerulean Warblers. The 128 acre bird sanctuary hosts rolling fields, mature forest, expansive marshland, a trout stream, kettle hole marshes, and several springs”.

This area of Michigan offers bird watchers the opportunity to see the very rare Cerulean Warbler. These songbirds migrate from their winter hapbitat in the Andes mountains where they depend on the shade coffee plantations. That habitat is disappearing as farmers continue to switch to sun coffee and other crops.

Counts indicate that Cerulean Warbler numbers are declining faster than any other warbler species in the USA; in the early 2000's its population was less than one-fifth of what it was 40 years earlier.